ASACP Reports 25% Rise in Use of Its Child Exploitation Tipline

LOS ANGELES—ASACP, the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection, reports a 25 percent increase in its CP Reporting Tipline for child exploitation and abuse during the COVID-19 crisis. Executive Director Tim Henning said that over the past 30 days since lockdowns took effect in many countries, the ASACP tipline as well as those of other similar organizations have reported increased volume. “Children are spending much more time online due to lockdowns and restrictions in many countries around the world,” Henning explained. “They are spending more time online for school and e-learning programs, and entertainment—and this extra exposure increases their vulnerability to predators and malicious content.” The ASACP Tipline has received and processed more than a million reports and has worked with a number of international law enforcement agencies combatting child exploitation since its inception in 1996. The association also offers, free to operators, the award-winning Restricted To Adults (RTA) meta-labeling system which helps to increase the accuracy and efficacy of parental filtering systems. This combination of efforts by adult industry, mainstream technology companies and parents works to effectively prevent minors from accessing billions of pages of adult-oriented content online. “Parents should be vigilant and take advantage of the myriad amount of free parental filtering tools for everything from browsers and apps to device and ISP-level filtering,” Henning advised, noting that proactive parental involvement, rather than governmental overreach, is the key to protecting children online. “Parents can take simple steps to ensure that their children remain as safe as possible in their daily digital lives—especially in this unique time when the digital aspect of their lives dominates their days.” Besides threats to children online, Henning noted his organization recently thwarted a cyber attack on its servers, part or a larger trend where hackers seek to take advantage of the pandemic. To learn more about how companies can help protect themselves by protecting children, email [email protected].